AI Automation Lead

Third Bridge is a leading global research firm established in 2007, with a team of over 1,500 employees worldwide dedicated to fueling decisions with expert insights . We accelerate and enhance decision-making for investors and business leaders by unearthing unique expert insights across multiple sectors, geographies, and topics. For nearly 20 years, we’ve helped clients access knowledge on demand from experts, in-person and through our Library covering over 65,000 companies. Third Bridge is building its AI function from scratch — and you're the person who will define what it becomes. Reporting directly to our COO, you'll leada growing team of AI Solution Engineers across London and Mumbai, and build the governance, architecture, and prioritisation frameworks that will shape how AI is embedded across our entire organisation. What You'll Do You'll operate at the intersection of commercial strategy and hands-on technical delivery, working across every business unit and horizontal in the organisation: Map and own the opportunity landscape: You'll work directly with business leads to identify and prioritise AI automation opportunities — deciding what the central team owns versus what local teams run themselves, and building a 12–24 month roadmap that balances impact, feasibility, and risk. Build the governance architecture: You'll design the systemic protocols, agent approval frameworks, and risk controls that allow Third Bridge to demonstrate positive control over AI technology as it scales — across hundreds of live agents, client-facing and internal. Lead and develop your team: Your AI Solution Engineers will look to you for direction, unblocking, and credibility. You'll earn that last one through your own technical chops — this is a role where you need to be able to do, not just direct. Drive adoption, not just delivery: Solutions that get built and thrown over the fence don't count. You'll sit with business stakeholders, ensure every deployment actually lands and gets used, and build the trust that makes future work possible. Build capability that outlasts the central team: Working with L&D, you'll upskill business units so they can build and iterate within your framework — reducing dependency on the central AI team over the next 12–18 months. What You'll Bring You bring a rare combination: the commercial judgment of a senior operator, the technical credibility of someone who has genuinely built with AI, and the leadership presence to establish a new function from scratch. Operational or consulting depth with real AI delivery: Your experience in business operations, transformation, or management consulting have allowed you to directly deliver AI or automation programmes — not advising on them from a distance. Hands-on technical capability: You can build as well as strategise. Your experience with prompt engineering, AI agent design, and LLM capabilities means the engineers on your team will respect you — and our stakeholders will trust you. Governance and risk fluency: You've designed AI governance frameworks in regulated environments before. You understand that moving fast and maintaining control aren't mutually exclusive — and you know how to make that case to a Compliance team. Influence without authority: Your track record includes embedding technology solutions across organisations where you didn't have direct control. You get adoption through trust, not mandate. Comfort with genuine ambiguity: You've built structure where little existed. If you need certainty before you can move, this isn't the right environment — but if a blank sheet of paper is where you do your best work, it is. How will you be rewarded? We truly care about our people so in return for your work, you’ll get: Vacation: 25 days (which increases to 28 days after 2 years of service) plus UK Bank Holidays Learning: personal development allowance of £1000 per year Health and wellbeing: private medical insurance and healthcare cash plan, a variety of health…